Pacific Asia Museum uses grant money to secure artifacts

When the shake, rattle and roll of the next inevitable earthquake hits Pasadena, several hundred priceless artifacts at the Pacific Asia Museum won’t be in danger of being damaged.

Since 2010, the museum has received two grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, totaling $200,000, to secure artifacts by using custom mounting techniques.

“We’ve upgraded our shelving unit, but we’ve also created custom mounts for each of the objects in here,” museum official Cesar Santander said, motioning to a glass case full of priceless ceramics inside the museum’s Snukal Family Ceramics Gallery, the latest gallery to open after having its exhibits secured.

The gallery closed in April for the custom seismic upgrades to be installed, and reopened in May.

Santander, who is responsible for preparing and installing artwork, worked with the museum’s curatorial and collections team to implement the upgrades.

“They were hard at work for months to make sure each piece was perfectly fitted to the case itself and to the object itself, to really secure it as much as possible,” said Chelsea Mason, a museum spokeswoman.

At any given time, about 1,500, or 10 percent, of the museum’s artifacts are on display. Though the pieces have always been secured in some fashion, the custom screws, clips, shelves and brackets help add the extra security against earthquakes.

“The seismic upgrades to the cases and mounts are particularly important because we want to protect these objects for future generations,” museum curator Bridget Bray said. “Our mission of promoting intercultural understanding is largely carried out by the objects in our permanent collection, and this mission has never been more important for our community.”

Seismic upgrades began in 2010, when the museum received a $50,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The money was used to safeguard its collection of ceramics that were stored and not on display. Additional grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Carpenter Foundation and the Ahmanson Foundation supported other renovations in the Introduction Gallery, Korean Gallery and Chinese Gallery.

A multi-year grant awarded in 2012 for $150,000 has funded seismic upgrades in the Korean Gallery, the Snukal Family Ceramics Gallery, the Japanese Gallery, the Silk Road Gallery, the Chinese Gallery and museum courtyard. It will also fund seismic upgrades in the Himalayan Gallery in 2014 and Southeast Asia Gallery in 2015. Some of the rooms will also feature new lighting and new walls.

“We wanted to consult with a lot of outside expertise that involves structural engineering and architects, and also gallery designers,” said Annie Kuang, the museum registrar.

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Each custom clip, screw and bracket is specific to the size and shape of the exhibit it will hold and are made in the museum’s basement by Santander and a group of contractors.

When custom pieces were made for the Snukal Gallery, about five people worked around a small workbench, Santander said.

“It gets a little crammed it here, but we make it all work out,” he said. “It’s kind of a fight for the vise.”

He showed how several pieces were put together to stabilize a couple of miniature horse ceramics: Styrofoam fills the cavities that hold in place a metal bar to keep metal from touching metal since the ceramics “are so fragile,” Santander said.

The ceramic horses are then propped up on the metal bar after its screwed into the plexiglass.

“Even handling the objects, sometimes you see some of the pigment transfer onto your hands or gloves,” he said.

When implementing the seismic hardware, crews try to blend it in with as much of the exhibit as to not take away from it. A bracket that was holding a large ceramic plate in place was painted over in the same design as the plate, camouflaging it.

“That’s part of the custom process,” Mason said. “We want to make sure it’s as secure as possible, but also as invisible as possible.”